Mary the discontinued exercise was called the "controlled shock" and was only a demonstration designed to show the student that mishandling the controls when at or near the stall and near the ground was not a good idea. I was quite happy to dothis demo in a K13. However it was discontinued after it became evident that practice bleeding is not a good idea. In normal circumstances allowing a student to fly the aircraft up to departure and then to recover is vital. Recognition of all the symptoms of the stall/spin must be learned hands on with out any interference of the controls from the instructor and the recovery/prevention must become instinctive.
Prevention ie avoidance of the stall/spin in the first place is always better than cure, so practice at flying near the stall in various configurations and various angles of bank and speeds is vital.
